How to become an eBay.com affiliate?
I´m currently gaining some information about different affiliate programs and networks. I also try to find out more about building niche websites and stores to make money from them (from what I´ve heard, it´s possible to make some hundred bucks each month). So I came across a nice website script called BANS, the short form of Build A Niche Store.
BANS enables you to set up an ebay niche store, you simply pick a category for products you would like to sell and the script generates your website store based on the template you choose. The script has got many good reviews from even well-known bloggers and it seems it´s worth the $97 you have to pay for it.
But that isn´t the problem here.
In order to use the script effectively, you have to be an ebay affiliate. That doesn´t seem to be a big problem as many countries, where you can access ebay, have such a program. But it IS a problem if you want to apply for the US-based program! Actually BANS requires you to have either a US-, UK-, Canada- or Australia-based ebay affiliate ID. This also makes sense if you want to target all those markets in the above mentioned countries.
So, if I personally would like to open an ebay niche store, mainly targeting those countries, I won´t have a chance because I live in another country (in my case it´s Germany). I´ve tested this by myself. To become an US-based ebay affiliate for example, you have to join the affiliate network Commission Junction. I´ve done that without problems and this company is really great and offers many high-paying products and services you can advertise on your website or blog. But as it came to applying for the affiliate program, I immediately got declined without any reasons.
I´ve done some research on that subject and it came out that this decline is because of being in the “wrong” country, namely outside the USA, UK, Canada or Australia. It seems there are many people complaining about this on different blogs, websites or forums, but nobody has a real good solution for it. Some people suggest to write the CJ team a kind email, showing that your personal site is mainly targeted at those countries (and therefore english-speaking people). But it seems, nobody has got a response after weeks of waiting. On the other side I´ve also heard that some people actually got accepted as international members, but I haven´t found a solution yet.
I´m really trying to find a way for becoming a US-based ebay affiliate, but it seems nobody can help me out. So I would like to ask you, my readers, if you have any experiences about this subject and please can help me out? I see many benefits for being an affiliate for ebay, they pay high commissions and are widely accepted.
Feel free to comment and give me some hints please!
With the very best regards,
Querblogger
Hey Querblogger,
Nice post about this BANS..I’ve heard about them a while ago and I found to be very interesting and very appealing. But because they are only available for USA, UK, Australia and Canada, it makes them pretty useless for us, Germans, Romanians or other euro people:( Unless they will be available for us too, we won’t be able to make money with them ( what a shame
Regards,
Midwest
Comment by Midwest — January 22, 2008 @ 3:46 pm
Hi,
Today I´ve written a kind email to the CJ.com support team (again and this time in german language). I made clear what I´m planning, how my business model works, where my visitors come from…I hope they will reply soon and accept me as an affiliate. I really don´t see a problem, but that´s only my opinion
Bye,
Querblogger
Comment by Querblogger — January 22, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
Hi,
I tried to be an ebay affiliate and get same response. I found something in one of the blog that could be useful. Review this link…
http://wired-gadget.blogspot.com/2007/08/ebay-us-affiliate-application-declined.html
best regards,
Comment by iffet — February 19, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
Thanks for that info iffet,
I´ve heard about that some weeks ago. Actually I wrote some mails to my affiliate manager on cj.com, he told me that the decline isn´t about being from another country than USA for example. It´s about too many people are applying for an account on eBay USA, sounds weird I know…
I´ve submitted my future plans as an eBay (USA) affiliate and my manager promised me to contact the eBay.com affiliate team about that issue, but no response after over three weeks…
I don´t bother spending more time on it, because there are plenty more affiliate programs out there that sometimes pay way more than eBay.com
Thanks again iffet!
Bye,
Querblogger
Comment by Querblogger — February 19, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
[...] you can remember one of my posts about becoming an eBay affiliate from outside the USA? If not, just let me tell you that it can be very difficult to register for [...]
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